SPOKANE, Wash. — You could call Jacob Johns an impressionist.
At least, he's made a lasting impression on people like Jeff Ferguson. It started at an art showing with no display tables.
“So, he took a ball of twine and threw it up in the trees and wove this web and hung his paintings in the trees in Riverfront Park," Ferguson recalled with a laugh. "And I just thought, ‘Man, this guy’s dedicated to his work and really wants to sell his work.’”
A benefit event at Shotgun Studios wasn't just about selling Johns' work.
“As you can see he’s an amazing artist," said Rick Davis, a fellow artist and longtime friend.
Friday's exhibition was also a show of support.
“It’s inspiring but also in a way it’s saddening because we don’t want to see this happen to a friend, we shouldn’t have to rally this way," said artist Matt Wolf. "We shouldn’t have to support friends who are victims of gun violence.”
Wolf and other artists who frequently gather at Shotgun Studios put together the benefit for Johns, who was shot late last month while protesting in New Mexico.
Wolf's girlfriend had the idea to shift a poetry reading into the benefit.
“She said what if we change the spirit of this event into a fundraiser for a pillar of our community," Wolf said. "And no one said no.”
“Doing whatever we can. It’s kind of what we do sometimes when somebody’s in trouble," Davis said.
Johns is out of critical condition, Ferguson said. He and his son took a two-day drive to Albuquerque to see Johns in the hospital.
“Wasn’t until maybe three, four days ago they took the bullet out," he said.
Though Johns is still battling infections and has had multiple surgeries. The bullet, which entered his torso and stopped in his back, hit multiple organs.
Davis thinks of Johns as a man who never sits still for long, someone who take trips around the world and comes back to Spokane to dash together 50 paintings before his next trek.
Ferguson says his friend is even more eager to come home after planning the better part of a year for their latest activism adventure: leading a climate delegation to Dubai.
“A big part of the agenda was to go and get indigenous voices heard," Ferguson said.
The two took a similar trip to Egypt last year for the COP27 global climate summit. Ferguson says this year's delegation features indigenous activists from Egypt and Peru, among other countries, set to head out in five weeks.
It's the kind of thing Johns is well-known for, rallying people together from disparate corners, even on a global scale.
“Jacob brings people together who never would’ve been together otherwise," Davis said.
“I can’t imagine all the people he’s affected," Ferguson said. "And trying to replace him. To replace somebody who's willing to do that on a local, regional, national and global and sacrifice over and over again for the future of our children and the future of mother earth, that's hard to find. He's got a lot of people in his corner praying for him."
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